By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.

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By Lee Chilcote, The Land

This story is part of a collaborative series, from the Institute for Nonprofit News, The Land and four other news partners, examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes. This reporting was made possible with support from the Joyce Foundation.

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Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.

Click on the headline to read the full story:

Illinois

• Illinois comes in 16th in annual ranking of states’ energy efficiency, behind California, Massachusetts and Minnesota — Chicago Tribune

Illinois ranks 16th nationally in a new energy efficiency scorecard behind Midwest top performers Minnesota and Michigan.

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Two men accused of stuffing five walleye with lead weights and fish fillets during a lucrative fishing tournament on Lake Erie pleaded not guilty to cheating and other charges on Wednesday.

Jacob Runyan, 42, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, and Chase Cominsky, 35, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, made no comments during their brief court appearances in Cleveland.

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Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.

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By John Flesher, Associated Press

Lifelong Cleveland resident Steve Gove recalls when the Cuyahoga River symbolized shame — fetid, lifeless, notorious for catching fire when sparks from overhead rail cars ignited the oil-slicked surface.

“It was pretty grungy,” said the 73-year-old, a canoeist in his youth who sometimes braved the filthy stretch through the steelmaking city.

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Broadcasting in our monthly PBS television program, The Catch is a Great Lakes Now series that brings you more news about the lakes you love. Go beyond the headlines with reporters from around the region who cover the lakes and drinking water issues. Find all the work HERE.

This month, The Catch features a new bulk freighter that is making waves in Great Lakes shipping.

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By Mark Gillispie, Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — The county prosecutor’s office in Cleveland has opened an investigation into an apparent cheating scandal during a lucrative walleye fishing tournament on Lake Erie last week.

A video posted to Twitter shows Jason Fischer, tournament director for the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, cutting open the winning catch of five walleye on Friday and finding lead weights and prepared fish filets inside them.

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“The Erie Situation,” a new documentary about toxic algae blooms will air simultaneously on six PBS stations in four states at 9 p.m. ET on Monday Sept. 12. To see if your station is one of them, click HERE.

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For the first time in decades, a new bulk freighter has been built on and launched on the Great Lakes.

The Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin unveiled the Mark W. Barker earlier this year after spending nearly three years constructing it. The vessel was commissioned by Cleveland-based Interlake Steamship Company which currently operates about a dozen ships.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.